There are many different styles of selling, and many different ways to define those styles.  Two of those styles are Relational and Transactional:

Someone who follows relational selling puts a great deal of emphasis on building a relationship with their potential client.  They focus on creating feelings of trust and comfort with the people they work with.  It’s often called “solution-based selling” because the salesperson spends their time uncovering the needs and challenges of their prospects.

A salesperson who has a transactional selling focus concentrates on the actual sales transaction.  They put their attention on the business exchange with their potential clients.  Because of this they are often more movement- and action-oriented, i.e. they want to get the deal done.

Very few salespeople, however, are one or the other.  It’s best to think of it as a spectrum with relational on one end and transactional on the other.  Most salespeople tend to blend the two styles together while leaning towards one of the them.  This mixture is good because each style has it’s own pros and cons:

Relational Selling

Pro -It creates a strong relationship that the salesperson can leverage because of strong feelings of “know, like, and trust”. 

Con – It’s easy to stagnate and not move the business relationship forward; creates the danger of being an “unpaid consultant”.

Transactional Selling

Pro – It creates business deals, which is important because the salesperson’s job and focus is to make sales.

Con – It can be seen as aggressive and pushy; and by moving too quickly it’s easy to miss information that is important to the sale.

The ideal, then is for a salesperson to find somewhere in the middle that they are comfortable with, and that is effective for them (which can also vary based on industry and company).

Where do you fall in the spectrum, and how is it working?  If you were going to adjust your selling style, which way should you move?

The ease of access to emerging social media platforms provides a vehicle that allows for individuals to create a personal brand that they can monetize.

Ideas, Implications, and Questions

• Gary skirts the line between being descriptive and prescriptive.  As a descriptive book, it’s an interesting story of what allowed him to be successful.  When it tries to be prescriptive, it falls apart because you can’t establish a cause and effect relationship.  If you look at the book as a guide to using social media, it’s quite useful.
• “If you’re not using Twitter because you’re in the camp that believes it’s stupid, you’re going to lose out.  It doesn’t matter if you think it’s stupid, it’s free communication.  That in and of itself has value, and you should take advantage of it.” (pg 71).  That’s exactly what I told my intern when I started my Twitter account.  I’m still not a huge fan of Twitter, but it’s a communication tool.  That can go for a whole range of internet tools – you don’t have to like them, but don’t leave them on the table.
• Is passion enough?  Gary feels that it is – if you build your brand in an area that you love, you’ll eventually be able to make money doing it.  I agree with him that it’s worth putting in the effort to create a business doing what enjoy.  It’s harder than he indicates, though, especially because:
  • People have to see a need for what you are doing.  If it’s in an area that people aren’t willing to spend money on/be an audience for, it’s going to be hard to monetize.
  • You have to be good at what you do.  Gary points out that you have to have talent and knowledge to build your personal brand.
  • Anything that has low barriers and scalability also has a lot of competition.  If it’s easy for you to get involved, it’s easy for others to get involved.  This is already building up a huge amount of mediocre noise.  Gary might say that the best rise to the top.  Yes, but not always and not automatically.
• It’s ironic that the cover testimonial is from Timothy Ferriss, the author of the 4–Hour Work Week, because Gary is also a huge proponent of working hard, or what he calls, hustle.  “No one makes a million dollars with minimal work unless they win the lottery.” (pg 89).  This is where he skirts the prescriptive/descriptive line, though, because the next sentence is, “The cool thing about hustle, though, is that it’s one more thing that equalizes the playing field.”  It can level the playing field, but it might not be enough.  I know lots of hard working people who haven’t crushed it.   The trick is to work hard on the right activities.

Should you read this book? Who should read this book?

Yes, it’s an interesting snapshot on what can be done with current social media platforms.  And following his credo, Gary is really passionate about his topic.  People who will get a lot out of this book:

• Service—oriented professionals who can profit from a personal brand
• Entrepreneurs who are building a business
• Small business owners who want to build a community
• Professionals who need to be able to sell social media:
  • Web designers
  • Marketing professionals
  • Graphic Designers
  • Copywriters

1. Email Addresses – It’s important to list all of the possible email addresses that someone might use when inviting you to connect, or the LinkedIn system won’t associate that invitation with your account.  You won’t be overwhelmed with emails, however, as the system only uses your primary address to contact you.  Also, it never displays your email addresses.
2. Receiving Emails – This allows you to change the frequency of contact from LinkedIn, depending on what type of information you are receiving.  This is especially valuable if you are in numerous LinkedIn Groups, as you can prevent the system from sending you daily emails from each Group.
3. Network Updates – As your network gets larger, it’s useful to control the flow of information on your homepage, and the Network Updates setting allows you to control who is on your homepage feed and what information is shared.  It’s best to modify this according to how you use LinkedIn; but remember, the more information you receive, the easier it is to keep your fingers on the pulse of your network.
   

After writing Step by Step Networking I’m always on the lookout for other books on networking.  I love finding different tools and philosophies on networking to help refine my approach.  Although focused more on job seekers, Orville Pierson’s Highly Effective Networking is a great primer for how to incorporate networking into your professional career.  The ideas and approaches that he covers are incredibly useful if you are currently networking to find a job, but they also apply to any networking situation.

Orville and I share a belief in the long-term scope of networking.  It’s not just something you do when you need a job or sales prospects, but rather a way of conducting your business life.  For Orville, there are 4 main goals that you can achieve through networking (and I couldn’t agree more):

• Get the word out
• Gather information
• Meet insiders at targeted organizations
• Get in touch with decision makers

Big Thought:

Networking is an important and effective part of the job search when you approach it as process of building relationships with others before they need your services.  Then when they have a job opening, you are a natural choice.

 Ideas, Implications, and Questions

• A lot of the book is dedicated to demonstrating that everyone already has a powerful network of contacts from their previous professional experiences and their personal life.  It shows that you don’t have to attend networking events to start networking; it can be as simple as picking up the phone and reaching out to people you already know.
• If you are not actively using networking as a tool in your career, you should start right now.  Orville points out that “Effective job hunters usually meet the Decision Maker before there is a job opening…” (pg 127).  My corollary would be that effective job hunters meet with the Decision Maker before they need a job.  Too often people wait until they have a need before they start networking, and because of the long-term nature of the process, there’s a delay before they see the results.  I think you should always be networking, because then you can leverage the relationships much more quickly.
• “It’s not about having a huge network.  It’s about using the network you have.”  (pg 47).  True, true, true.  A huge mistake people make is to assume that master networkers need to have huge networks.  While having a sizeable network can be helpful, it doesn’t have to be massive.  If you build strong relationships with a core of well-placed contacts, that’s a great base.  Sometimes I find myself falling into the trap of talking about how big my network is – I’m quick to point out, though, that it’s not necessary to know a lot of people, but rather to know people well.
• The one area that Orville breezes through is on how to leverage the relationships with your network.  He does a great job showing where to find possible connections and how to start and build relationships, but there is an underlying assumption that once you have the relationship, people will automatically give you what you want.  It’s similar to sales books that only show how to build rapport and show value – in the end you still have to ask for the order.  I think Orville passes over it because the “sales” side of networking, the asking for what you want, makes people uncomfortable and he knows that it’s hard to coach for that through a book.  For networking to be successful, though, it’s not only about developing your networking, but leveraging it.
• I’m a huge fan of meeting people for a cup of coffee when I’m looking to add them to my professional network.  It’s a great opportunity to get to know them.  Orville agrees that one on one meetings are a great way to build your network, and he points out that there are three aspects of a great networking meeting (pg 65):

  1. Authentic conversation

  2. Common interest

  3. Information exchange

Should you read this book?

Yes, Highly Effective Networking does a good job of spelling out the basics of using networking as a professional development tool.  If you are looking to use networking to build any part of your professional life, and especially if you are looking for a job right now, it’s well worth the read.  I think Orville really hits the essence of effective networking when he says: “The one most important thing is to make everyone you talk to comfortable.” (pg 23)

Do I like every book that I read?  I was looking over the past reviews that I’ve written for this blog and I realized that all were generally positive.  There are no ruminations that end with me telling people not to read the book.  Is it because I’m not discerning or because I’ve been taught to only say nice things? Or maybe I’m in the employ of the book authors?

The answer is none of the above (although any authors out there – I’m more than willing to accept checks).  It turns out that the reviews are overwhelmingly positive because I only write about the books that are worth writing about.  If that seems a bit unrepresentative, it is.  Although reading any book is never a waste of time, I find that only a certain percentage of the books I read are actually worth taking the time and effort to write a review.  I find I only write reviews/overviews for about 20% of the books I read, so most don’t get the in-depth treatment I give the Book Ruminations

My litmus test is this – after reading the book, do I want to continue to engage with the material? Do I want to clarify my thinking on the book and its subject matter?   One of the biggest reasons I write the reviews is somewhat self-serving – I want to remember the material in the book and my thoughts on it.  I also ask myself if I think that other people should engage with the material as well.  If I think that a book brings up topics that are useful to others, it’s much more likely to be written about.

My challenge to you is this: engage with the books that you read.  Don’t wait for a book review.  If you don’t read much now, then start reading so you can have books that will engage your thinking!  Whether or not you have a public forum to share what you are learning from a book you read, use the amazing resources you have available to get better at what you do and how you do it.  No matter what the topic, others have written about it.  Remember, the best institution of higher learning is your local library.

In my experience, people fall into one of two networking categories.  It’s an incredibly important distinction because the professionals in the first category tend to fail miserably at networking, while those in the second find their career blossoming because of their networking activity. 

The first type is what I call the transactional networker.  People that follow this philosophy see networking as a series of brief encounters; and the goal of each encounter is to get something from it.  These are the people at networking events who pass out as many cards as possible and get as many as they can.  They are on the hunt for those that can use their products and services right away, or know someone who can.  They’ll help other people out, but only if they see it leading to mutual back-scratching.

Often, this isn’t because they are bad people, but rather because they haven’t been taught any other way.  They read a book or heard from someone that networking is about meeting as many people as possible, so they are doing just that.  Transactional networkers tend to ask for business immediately, and can be relatively aggressive.  They view networking as simply a numbers game – the goal is to talk to everyone so they can find as many prospects as they can.  This leads to a short term view of networking because they are in it for the here and now.

The relational networker takes a more long-term approach to their networking activities.  As the name implies, they are focused on building a relationship with the people they meet.  They find out how they can be of service to the people in their network and create strong ties by actively helping their contacts first, without expecting a direct referral in response.

These networkers find more long-term success through their networking because they view each relationship as an investment for the future.  As they get to know their network better and better, there are more opportunities for mutual benefit.  Because it’s not necessary for there to be payback in the immediate future, relational networkers are able to develop a web of connections in which each person is invested in the success of the others.

Looking at networking as a relational versus transactional process is incredibly beneficial.  If that’s the case, though, why don’t more professionals take a relational approach to their networking?  The main reason is that relational networking is by its very nature, long-term.  Business relationships, like any other relationships, take time to build.  Therefore, impatience is the biggest challenge to building a strong network.  That's why so many people fall into the bad habits of transactional networking.

By being aware of these pitfalls, though, you can focus on building your network the right way.  Just like a farmer cultivates the fields for a huge payoff at the end of the summer, spend the time and energy to build your relationships and strengthen the ties to your connections.  When you do this you will find that networking will become a key part of your business development.

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, it’s natural for people’s thoughts to turn towards turkey, football, and the good and bad aspects of spending a whole day with their family.  And for a few moments they will think of the idea of “thanks-giving”, and they will spend time giving thanks.  It might be a short pause in their day, or maybe they’ll go around the table before dinner and share one thing for which they are grateful.

It’s powerful to express gratitude, but do we have to wait until the end of November to do it?  Do we need a national holiday to make ourselves stop and look at what is good in our lives?  I think every day should be Thanksgiving.  Here’s an excerpt from the Book of Habits  on how to make appreciation a part of your daily life:

“Our daily lives are filled with good and bad, happy and sad.  How can some people who have tons of challenges have a great deal of happiness, and those who have every advantage be miserable all the time?  Much of it has to do with what they focus on.  Since our minds can only focus on one thing at a time, gratitude is simply a deliberate choice to look at the positive instead of dwelling in the negative.  A gratitude list creates the habit of looking at the positive things in our life.  Get a notebook, a journal or a couple of sheets of paper.  Put it by your bed, right next to where you keep this book. 

Every night, before you go to bed, write down what you are grateful for.  This is your list, so there aren’t any wrong or right answers.  Just write at the top, “I am grateful for… and then list at least three things (there’s no upper limit).  They can be big or small, specific or general.  It can be that your husband did the dishes after dinner or that you are healthy.  It’s very important, however, that you write at least three.  Some days you’ll be able to write 20 right off the top of your head, and some days (you know the ones I’m talking about), it’s hard to get even the first one down.  Those rough days are when it’s especially important that you write down at least three.  What you are doing is a five-minute exercise on developing perspective.  You are teaching your conscious and unconscious minds to focus on things that are positive, instead of on what you lack in your life.  This is a crucial step to living in peace and happiness.”

“The quality of a person’s life is determined by the quality of the questions they ask.” – Anthony Robbins

Last week I read William Kamkwamba’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, a fantastic story about how he persevered through poverty and ignorance in Africa to build an electricity-generating windmill for his family’s home.  There are a many reasons why the book engaged me, but one of them is because I’ve also been thinking about how to build windmills.

One of the topics I daydream about is how to make every house in the U.S. a zero-sum electricity user by using solar and wind power right at the building.  Now, I’m not an engineer, so a lot of the technical aspects of the question are beyond my grasp at the moment.  What William’s story reinforced for me, though, is the power of asking the right questions.  He didn’t get stuck asking himself why there were so many challenges in his life, he asked himself how he could change his circumstances.

In the same way, I think one of the biggest challenges that we face in wrestling with the climate change crisis, or really any crisis, is that we ask the wrong questions.  Unfortunately, it’s very easy to get stuck on the why questions – which very often seem to be the why not questions:

• Why do we continue to pollute even though we know it’s ruining the environment?
• Why can’t we figure out a solution?
• Why bother trying?

By their nature, they are hard questions to answer; and even if you can find an answer, it tends to be self-defeating.  The trick, then, is to change the questions you ask.  My favorite question to ask is how.  By reframing the challenge in your mind you can find possible solutions. Because when you have the answer to a how question, you have a tangible next step:

• How do we allow every home to cleanly generate the power they need?
• How do we encourage people to change their habits around energy use?
• How can I make a difference?

This doesn’t mean that the answers will come easily, or that the answers you get will be easy to implement.  You will find, though, that you have answers that you can take action on.  Whether they center on the challenges facing our society or our own individual lives, focusing our questions on solutions instead of problems is the first step to overcoming them.

Reading a book on the history and development of probability theory might not seem too enthralling.  But somehow Leonard Mlodinow’s The Drunkard’s Walk combines both the technical developments and the characters along the way into a coherent (and enjoyable) whole.  Along the way, it points out why the ancient Greeks never studied probability and why most of the great thinking on the subject came about because of gambling.

There’s a method to his madness, though, and a purpose behind this story.  For Leonard, studying the development of probability theory is invaluable because it educates us on how we interact with randomness in our current times.  The evolution of our thinking on probability is a worthwhile topic of investigation because it still affects us in an age where we “should know better.”

Big Thought

Chance and uncertainty influences many of the decisions we make on a daily basis, and because of that, it’s valuable to understand how probability and our ideas around probability have evolved.

Ideas, Implications, Questions

• “The cord that tethers ability to success is both loose and elastic” (pg 216).  This idea, which echoes similar theories from such authors as Malcolm Gladwell and Nassim Taleb, is one of the most important and controversial predictions from the examination of uncertainty and probability.  It’s controversial because it flies in the face of “common wisdom” that says there is a direct connection between people’s hard work and abilities and the level of success they enjoy.  Leonard points out that ability does help, but it’s simply a part of the equation; and there are many other variables – including ones that have a degree of chance.
• This has a profound meaning for business people.  If there isn’t a direct relationship between work and results, what can you do to minimize the effects of randomness and uncertainty?  Simple: increase activity, or at the very least, keep trying even if you initially fail.  For example, a salesperson who is selling a product or service should keep going even if rejected at first.  The more that salesperson tries, the more possibilities there are for success.  J.K. Rowling didn’t sell her book about a young wizard to the first publishing company – what if she had given up?
• Be careful to not fall prey to the “Law of Small Numbers” (pg 99).  It’s too easy to think that we can predict future performance based on a relatively small sample size.  Too often we try to create predictive models based on only a few pieces of data.  It doesn’t work, so if you only have a small number of results with which you are trying to evaluate performance, find another metric to use.
• Another common mistake that I thought was illuminating was the hot hand fallacy in which there is the “mistaken impression that a random streak is due to extraordinary performance” (pg 178).   How often do we give too much credit to something that is in reality, just a piece of randomness disguised as skill or “good luck”?  Looking at it in the reverse, how often do we attribute such things as “bad luck” to natural randomness.   

Should you read this book?

Probably.  If you have any interest at all in probability, you should invest the time.  Even if you don’t think about probability much, it’s a fascinating story and a fun read.  The times where Leonard pauses from the narrative to take a quick tour of probabilistic logic is unobtrusive and in the end quite satisfying.  It won’t stop you from making decisions with a low chance of success, but at least you’ll know why you made them.